Chicago Jazz Festival 2011

This past Labor Day weekend was probably one of the nicest I have experienced in many years and happening upon the Chicago Jazz Festival in downtown was certainly one of the highlights. Bruce and I headed to Chicago Saturday afternoon after having spent the day at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL

The cityscape taken for granted by those who live there is a sight to behold when the tallest building in your county dwarfs the landscape with its massive 6 stories. Of course the architecture of Chicago is stunning with mind blowing heights and art deco styles mixed with post modern, modern and classic buildings, definitely sensory over load.

Chicago is growing and exploding with things to do. There are so many offerings it is difficult to decide what to do. Millennium Park is a modern marvel and when we cruised through at midnight it was still lively. Heading to Navy Pier for the last ride on the giant Ferris wheel was a good way to end Saturday night but we could not resist a Cheeseborger, Cheeseborger before heading back to the hotel.

Sod Versus Seed

There is always a certain amount of satisfaction when you complete a job and when you sod that satisfaction is more immediate. There is a lot to be said for being able to mow your grass two weeks after it is planted. We experienced hot, dry spells in July this year having set an all time record for heat and lack of rain. These are the perfect conditions for weeds. The upshot is nearly all the grass we planted this spring and summer is now infested with crabgrass and nutsedge.

This makes an even stronger case for fall seeding. The optimal time according to Purdue University to seed in Steuben County is August 15 to October 15. Weed seeds have slowed down, dew helps dampen the seeds and the cooler temperatures promote better germination. When we use only bluegrass seed the results are even more disastrous if the weather does not cooperate. Many of our customers want the benefits of a seeded yard but are not willing to wait out the growing period.

You can expect it to take two growing seasons for a sewn yard to become completely established. Even then you need to work on it, watering, fertilizing, mowing properly; it is the cultural practices of turf maintenance that are most important. Lawns are tricky business and I am often pleased that we do not mow but then again I see the poor techniques used by others and think, Millgrove could do that better. Maybe that is what we will do upon retirement, some lighter landscaping duties.

We completed this guest house on Crooked Lake having changed out the original viburnums I had installed to obtain more privacy for the patio. The customer requested a more symmetrical look so more boxwood's and hydrangeas were added, we moved the Japanese maple planting pachysandra in front of the existing Hickory.

This job is very crisp and well defined it should be pretty easy to maintain and never out grow the location. We will be adding five spruce trees this fall.

Question Mark, Joey O and Marg

Once a year we throw a party people from out of town come and we have a lot of fun. It takes a bit of preparation and between getting ready for the party and staying on top of business posting on the blog has taken a back seat. In addition I am still having difficulty loading video but nephew Lee may have fixed that, we'll see.

One of the best things that happened for me during this years party was that my sister Cass came to stay for nearly two weeks. She loves the blues so we got tickets to see The Joey O Band, a local Fort Wayne area award winning blues band and an old rock and roll legend band ? Mark and the Mysterians. It was a fund raiser for Serenity House in Auburn, IN, judging from the poor turn out I doubt their monetary goals were met.

Joey O took the stage first and they were delightful a nice tight blues band with a decent repertoire of cover songs and a couple of their own. Front man Joey O is into his guitar when he pounds out the chords and coaxes the squeals, you feel each note he reaches and the feeling is good. I will definitely try and catch their act again.

"I'm gonna cry 96 tears, to many teardrops, 96 tears, cry, cry, cry......", that was the hook line from one hit wonder band ? Mark and the Mysterians and they saved it for the last song. The flamboyant ? Mark states in his autobiography that he is from Mars, the words to 96 Tears were sent to him from outer space and that he must always wear sunglasses to protect his alien eyes, that is what I learned when I Googled him.

On stage he does not disappoint even when performing for a small, somewhat nervous crowd who seems to be shocked by the androgynous ? Mark , even Cass thought he was a woman for the first two songs. The band lived up to its garage band image even as ? Mark relegated the 100 people in attendance with past snippets of Vegas and London. The whole scene was rather surreal reminded Cass and I of similar instance in a bistro in Niece, France. Don't get me wrong we had fun both times.

Marg our book keeper posed for these photo's in our gardens and I could not resist sharing them. Marge took the pictures for a fund raising calender.

Three Little Birds Upon My Barnbeam

This is the third set of baby barn swallows that the pair of birds living in our barn have raised this season. The annual event makes for messy floors but we all enjoy watching the babies grow up and fly off plus barn swallows eat lots of mosquitoes.

Van Gordan Construction has begun work on a project that Bruce is spearheading, they are excavating to begin pouring a concrete wheelchair path. We got involved in this project after a local amateur built some Allan Block retaining walls without having any idea what he was doing. The walls failed, blew out once and were currently sagging horribly.

We just installed this 6' diameter compacted, crushed granite pathway around a fire pit we built in 05'. The pit was originally built to allow our customer to burn large debris. Now since his beloved dog Sammy is buried beneath the ashes this seating ring will make graveside visits easier.

Updating Susie and Jeff's landscaping was a fun process, we worked on two sides of the house but could not help pulling out a couple of over grown shrubs on the other two sides as well. Using Belgard universal block to build walls this past couple of weeks has been the standard as we built both retaining walls and seating walls using this medium in two different locales.

I pulled the Captain off the front deck and incorporated the statue into a bed of houseplants that will go back inside this fall. Lavender rings a specimen scotch pine in one terrace while zebra grass and a gold mop fill out the third. On the north side of the house I used Patriot hosta set in stone for a clean low maintenance landscape.

We've a good start on Jo and Sam's house having all the big plants in and the seating wall built, we are waiting on Terry to finish up the irrigation. The Belgard three piece system made a great wall but the concrete design we followed had lots of sharp curves so it was necessary to cut 90% of the block times five rows, the saw ran non stop for two days. It would be best to design your shape according to the curves the block naturally makes with its various tapered pieces to avoid all that cutting, we did not design the shape of this patio.

This house is on a corner lot of a busy lake neighborhood so the patio was not afforded much privacy as you can see what all the neighbors are doing. Once we installed these five foot viburnums and the Jap maple we effectively created instant privacy. Jo is not sure she likes the look of the viburnum she feels she may prefer a more symmetrical look. A change out may be in order.

Spiders and Rocks

Itsy, bitsy spider has beautiful markings and has spun a intricate web in a bed of hostas, Theresa pointed it out to me, she found it deadheading.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the jobs I have designed and am installing that I do not always see the jobs that Bruce has designed and is working. I made a special effort to check out a couple of rock walls on two different lakes, one built by Dave and Matt and the other built by Ryan, they are artisan rock walls both functional and well crafted.

Dave and Matt built the walls and steps for this customers new home on Crooked Lake. The home owners are installing their landscaping with guidance from Bruce. The lake side of this home is almost complete and our crew is working toward the road side with two more free standing rock glacial stone walls.

One of the things that sets us apart from other guys attempting rocks walls is not only our technique but the shear skill level of our installers. The rocks fit tight and the slight set back means the rocks stay in place. Our installers also choose rocks to feature in prominent locations like this conglomerate pudding rock that Dave placed on the corner.

Chain saw art is all over the county and this otter with fish in hand I found at the neighbors next to our job site. Makes me wish I had a tree near my house that needed cut down.

These two long rock terraces were built by Ryan his attention to detail and construction skills are getting better and better. He is not only capable but fast at almost all the hard scape he installs. Ryan is just a natural landscaper, he is a pleasure to have around and another asset to the company.

This is my next large installation project with full landscaping, sod and irrigation I will be paying a visit to The Plant Center to pick out material over the week end. I plan to triangulate specimen Japanese maples on this side of the house that will look really sweet against the house color. We will be constructing a seating wall on the concrete patio, Weston block by Belgard.

Steely Dan

Attending my first concert at the Toledo Zoo last Wednesday night was a lovely experience except for the 96 degree heat that tended to keep movement below the waist to a minimum. What a great venue, tasty cocktails, it would be fun to do the zoo then see a band sometime. Hearing Steely Dan is always a treat and frontmen Walter Becker and Donald Fagen kept up the heat on stage as they tore through four decades of music.

They opened with Aja, Black Friday and Hey Nineteen three stellar songs. Their distinctive style and Fagens voice filled the air as we settled back and listened to nearly three hours of classic Steely Dan.

My first good Dan memories are from high school when their first album Can't Buy A Thrill was getting radio time, the single Reeling In The Years was a favorite of mine and of a girlfriend named Donna. I had a 61 VW with a huge sunroof, I had an 8 track and we would listen to that tape over and over sitting under the bridge near the school. Donna would stand up through the open sun roof singing those songs as I drove through the streets of our home town.

Halmark, my local equipment rental company and John Deere dealer had this mower/bike on display I got a kick out of it.

Pondamania

It is always a good feeling to wrap up a job we finished two big jobs last week. The seed is sprouting at Trish and Doug's likely they will be mowing part of the grass this weekend. We used Futerra blanket on the entire lawn taking the risk out out blowing straw and enabling us to control moisture better. We will spot treat for weeds after they have mowed it a couple of times.

Trish played a big role in designing the perennial beds, tree placement and shrub selection. She had definite ideas, likes and dislikes, we worked easily together placing plants and rearranging. The beds are stuffed and there is a lot of square footage, it is already stunning. The gardens still have room for some additions and we are planning to up light the trees.

We installed a dry stream bed last year and this year we put water into it from the irrigation system which turned out pretty awesome and does a great job of water control. The stream is actually the 10Th zone.

Working on the pond in Angola is the focus of my work this week along with getting Theresa out to do some trimming and touch up for our maintenance customers. The pond is coming along but Bill is having trouble with the pavers as we are adding on to existing pavers that are not level or straight. The home owner (Gregg) and his family installed the first pavers and there are a few things we would have done differently. The project Gregg and his kids worked on was huge especially for a first time installer; pavers, block walls, accent walls, a wood deck and pergola along with a small pond.

We tore out the old pond and have built one that is much larger and designed as a seating and reflection pond. The pond is a memorial to the memory of Alexx, the son of Lisa and Gregg who was tragically killed in an automobile accident along with his three best friends this past spring. The accident brought great sadness to our community as the four boys were graduating seniors and highly regarded athletes, students and best friends.

Looks like it will take us until sometime next week to wrap things up but good things take time. When I first saw the site it the jut out on the deck Gregg had built reminded me of a pier, the water is the long view of the lawn, woods and fields. The falls has minimal drop, the rain curtain under the pier provides the music of steady water running a gentle background while enjoying the sitting in the pond.

A halo completely surrounded the sun Thursday afternoon, it was like a circle rainbow, there were rainbows in the sky although we had no rain.

Ziggy

Just about this time last year I had a kitten which I had rescued living with our menagerie as I tried to find a home for the little cutie, unfortunately Dexter had to be put to sleep due to multiple health issues. Now I find myself once again with a fifth pet at chateau Etter.

As with Dexter this kitten was found abandoned on our property, two of his siblings were found dead and he was eventually saved literally from our burning rubbish by one of our workers, Rick.When Rick brought Ziggy into the office he was suffering from burns and very dehydrated, in addition he was only three or four weeks old and not weaned. My girlfriend Betty came to the rescue nursed the little bugger back to health and fed it as needed until it was weaned.

Even though Betty wanted to she was unable to keep the kitten, now it is back with me and I am seeking a good home for the little beast. This is definitely a cat lover's kitten as it is full of life and vigor, hopping, jumping and leaping are favorite activities. He gets along with both the dogs and has become the personal punching bag for our cat Baxter, who views him as a live action toy.

His only maladies from the fire are rather crisp and scarred ears, missing hair on his tail and a little bald spot on his head. His fur is not the most luxurious but his sparkling eyes are full of life. I would be willing to ship this little fellow most anywhere the law allows so if anyone out there can offer him a home please contact me, five pets is just too darn many.